Making Los Angeles

Castulo de la Rocha arrived in Los Angeles from rural Mexico at age ten having never attended school. He didn't speak English. He couldn't read or write it. And … a few years later, he was elected student body president. Twice. What followed was just as unlikely. Fresh out of law school at Berkeley, Castulo thought he'd spend a few months helping a small East Los Angeles community clinic before mo...

John Quinn founded a four-lawyer firm in Los Angeles that grew into Quinn Emanuel — now the largest litigation-only law firm in the world, with more than 1,000 lawyers and nearly $3 billion in annual revenue. Which is impressive. But it’s also only part of the story. In this episode, John takes us from his childhood in Utah to Harvard Law School and then Los Angeles, where an early business model...

Jacob Soboroff has built a national reputation as a television journalist and author, reporting from the field for NBC News, MSNBC, MS NOW and beyond. But his story starts in Los Angeles. In this episode, Jacob shares what it was like growing up in the Pacific Palisades – and then, years later, reporting on it burning down on live television – along with the unlikely early experiences that sh...

Zev Yaroslavsky spent forty consecutive years in elected office in Los Angeles — a run that, thanks to term limits, no local politician will ever match again. And it began with a race he probably wasn't supposed to win. At just 25 years old, Zev ran for Los Angeles City Council and defeated not one, but two formidable opponents: Mayor Tom Bradley's handpicked candidate and former Councilmember Roz...

Susan Feniger is one of the pioneers of modern Los Angeles dining – and one of the first generation of chefs to bring bold, regional Mexican cuisine into the mainstream. But her story starts in a parking lot. In this episode, Susan shares how she set out – very intentionally – to learn from the kitchens she admired, landing at Ma Maison under a young Wolfgang Puck, and how she met her longtime bus...

Alex Baskin is the executive producer behind some of Bravo’s most recognizable reality series – most notably,  The Real Housewives . But his story starts well before that. In this episode, Alex shares how his father’s career as a television writer brought their family to L.A., what it was like coming up through MTV in its heyday, and why, fresh out of law school, he took a job that paid just five...

Madeleine Brand is one of those voices millions of people recognize — even if they don’t immediately know the name behind it. For more than a decade, she’s hosted Press Play on KCRW. Before that came NPR, Day to Day , and a public-radio career that took her from Berkeley to Buffalo, Boston, New Jersey, Washington, New York, and finally — wisely — back home to Los Angeles. What’s remarkable is how...

John Szabo runs one of the largest and most quietly influential public systems in Los Angeles — all seventy-two branches of the L.A. Public Library — as the City Librarian. In this episode, John shares how he started working in libraries at sixteen, what it was like arriving in L.A. thinking it would take a couple months to get settled – only to realize, eighteen months later, that this city doesn...

Jim Hahn and Janice Hahn come from one of the most consequential families in Los Angeles public life – and are still shaping it today. Their father, Kenneth Hahn, served on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors for more than four decades – and left a legacy that both Jim and Janice have carried forward in their own ways. Jim is the only person to have held all three citywide offices in Los Angeles,...

Brian Toll and John Terzian aren’t household names – but their venues are. Bootsy Bellows. Delilah. The Nice Guy. Poppy. Bird Streets Club. If you’ve seen a paparazzi shot of a celebrity slipping in or out of a club in Los Angeles, there’s a good chance it was one of theirs. In this episode, Brian and John share how a friendship that started by throwing epic house parties at USC turned into the h....

City of Hope CEO Robert Stone leads one of the most important cancer research and treatment organizations in the world. Under his leadership, the institution has expanded dramatically, now serving nearly 150,000 patients annually across four states. Which makes one fact all the more surprising: out of the country's 57 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers, Robert is the...

Nancy Silverton isn’t just one of Los Angeles’s most celebrated chefs – she helped define how this city eats. Born and raised in L.A., Nancy’s career spans the city’s most iconic kitchens – from Michael’s to Spago, Campanile to La Brea Bakery, and now the “Mozza Plex”: Pizzeria Mozza, Osteria Mozza, and Chi Spacca.  And let’s not forget the already-iconic Max & Helen’s, the Larchmont diner she ope...

Alex Cohen is one of those if-you-know-you-know voices in Los Angeles. A longtime presence on NPR and now a morning anchor and political host on Spectrum News 1, she’s spent decades helping Angelenos make sense of the world around them. But her path to journalism – and her life outside of it – is anything but conventional. In this episode, Alex shares how growing up in the San Fernando Valley (yes...

How does someone go from the Jordan Downs housing projects in Watts to becoming the co-owner of one of Los Angeles’ most celebrated restaurants? In this episode of Making Los Angeles, chef and author Keith Corbin reflects on the long, unlikely road that led him from gang culture, prison, and the crack epidemic of 1980s South LA to Alta Adams, the acclaimed West Adams restaurant rooted in Black foo...

What does it take to reinvent yourself over and over again — from Chicano kid in South Central LA, to potter living in the Canadian wilderness, to one half of one of the most iconic comedy duos in American history? In this episode, Cheech Marin reflects on the winding, unexpected path that shaped his life and career. Recorded inside the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Riverside, t...

What's different about Season 2? Everything! And absolutely nothing. Because this show is about people, and everybody's story is different. Join us every Wednesday starting May 13th.  

Please enjoy this specially featured episode of LA Times Studio's Rebuilding LA. What’s next for L.A. in the wake of its recent wildfires? In “Rebuilding Los Angeles,” broadcast journalist Kate Cagle examines the systems that failed us, the path forward and the innovative fire recovery efforts making L.A. more resilient. This episode features prominent city developer Rick Caruso and a conversation...

As we gear up for Season Two, we’re taking a behind-the-scenes look at how Making Los Angeles came to life — with a twist. Season Two guest Alex Cohen — NPR legend and Spectrum News 1 anchor — steps into the host chair, and Glenn plays guest for a day as they talk through the show’s origins, how guests are chosen, and the stories behind the stories. They also dig into what makes someone truly part...

We’re bringing back a few of my favorite conversations from last season — Season One Spotlights, as we’re calling them — so whether you’ve been with us from the start or you’re just discovering the show, these episodes capture the people, stories, and ideas that shape how we see Los Angeles.   From Bosch to The Lincoln Lawyer to his latest novel Nightshade, few authors have done more to shape how...

We’re bringing back a few of my favorite conversations from last season — Season One Spotlights, as we’re calling them — so whether you’ve been with us from the start or you’re just discovering the show, these episodes capture the people, stories, and ideas that shape how we see Los Angeles. In a city where everything changes, what if the most important people are the ones who don’t? Father Greg B...

We’re bringing back a few of my favorite conversations from last season — Season One Spotlights, as we’re calling them — so whether you’ve been with us from the start or you’re just discovering the show, these episodes capture the people, stories, and ideas that shape how we see Los Angeles. Kevin Demoff is the President of Team & Media Operations for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, where he helps...

Please enjoy this preview of the first episode of Patt Morrison's latest miniseries, Smoglandia.  Smoglandia is a narrative audio series tracing the rise, impact and eventual retreat of L.A.’s most insidious form of pollution: smog. Through interviews with scientists, policymakers, filmmakers and artists who lived through the worst days, Smoglandia explores how Los Angeles became a testing ground...

We’re bringing back a few of my favorite conversations from last season — Season One Spotlights, as we’re calling them — so whether you’ve been with us from the start or you’re just discovering the show, these episodes capture the people, stories, and ideas that shape how we see Los Angeles.   While Mayor Karen Bass hardly needs an introduction, what sticks with me most from this conversation is h...

What’s it like to carry one of the most powerful names in Los Angeles history — and still make your own mark? Harry Chandler is the great-great-grandson of Harrison Gray Otis, who took over the Los Angeles Times in 1882 and began a century-long dynasty that helped shape the city’s growth, politics, and mythos. But Harry? He took a different path. In this episode, we talk about what it’s like to gr...

How does the son of a bracero and a labor organizer become one of the most influential figures in California politics? Fabian Núñez is the former Speaker of the California State Assembly and was a driving force in the rise of Latino political power in California — helping turn what was once the exception into today’s expectation of Latino representation at the highest levels of government. In this...